We believe our girls are still alive –Chibok leader Pogu
It is three months since the abduction of schoolgirls took place at the Government Secondary School Chibok. As the leader of the Chibok community. How do you feel, especially given the fact that nothing tangible has yet come out of the rescue efforts?The feeling is actually frustrating! There isn’t any reason why the Nigerian government, […]
It is three months since the abduction of schoolgirls took place at the Government Secondary School Chibok. As the leader of the Chibok community. How do you feel, especially given the fact that nothing tangible has yet come out of the rescue efforts?
The feeling is actually frustrating! There isn’t any reason why the Nigerian government, with all the resources, both human and material, wouldn’t have pulled out some negotiation, given that human lives are involved and that military assault may not be the best approach. We have suffered a lot; so many parents have lost their lives.
I don’t have the exact names but from the records about seven parents died out of cardiac arrest arising from the shock over their daughters and what they might be going through in the hands of Boko Haram. The frustration is also heightened by the fact that despite the assistance by foreign governments in this process of negotiation nothing has come out of it.
No trace of them is known and we also know that at this period of the year the Sambisa Forest will be flooded because an extension of it comes towards areas around Frigi in Bama Local Government Area. Secondly, that place is not even habitable so it is possible they have been moved to some other locations. All these make someone like me representing the parents and the communities feel really frustrated because we feel government would have done better.
What is the general mood in Chibok at the moment?
The mood is that of fear. When one doesn’t know what may happen next, especially given that Boko Haram has been attacking neighboring villages at will. Most of such attacks happen within the wee hours and the soldiers just stay in Chibok, watching, allowing the local vigilantes to confront the insurgents. That leaves the people with a lot of fear, more so that this people are well armed and the villagers have no arms.
In the olden days a typical Chibok man would be well armed with his bow and arrows which will be poisoned but these days hardly do they even know what bows and arrows are because Christianity came and all traditional things were abandoned. You find a community just exposed at the risk of enemies coming with modern weapons. Sometimes they come camouflaging in uniforms so someone you thought was coming as a friend is actually an enemy.
There were several versions that followed the Chibok abduction incident. What version do you know?
The only true version I know is that which has even been corroborated by the committee set up by the federal government. On the night of 14 / 15th of April insurgents came to Chibok. Those of us who are from Chibok were aware that these insurgents were coming about an hour and forty five minutes before their arrival. Nobody knew what their target was. All we knew was that they were coming to Chibok. When they came in there was bombardment, burning of shops and selected houses as well as government buildings.
There was also burning of vehicles at the motor park and why these were going on we were communicating and listening to the sound of gunfire and explosion at the background. Little was it known that a contingent of the insurgents who parked their vehicle one and a half kilometer to the girls school walked to the school and told the girls that they were there to save them from the trouble inside the town. They were dressed in military camouflage, so the majority of the girls rushed out and those were the ones abducted by the Boko Haram. Some, through the advice of an old security man, who hadn’t left the hostel asked them not to cooperate and they were able to escape. About 119 were able to escape while 276 were rounded up and marched out of the school to the location where the vehicles were parked.
When the insurgents discovered that the number of girls was more than they expected they rushed to the motor park and seized two vehicles which were the only vehicles brought to the school. The majority of the girls marched to where they had parked their vehicles about one and a half kilometer away from the school. Those two seized vehicles were used mainly to pack foodstuff from the school store and cooking utensils. The girls were tormented because the insurgents insisted in taking away the block molding machine which unfortunately was not in sight.
On reaching where they had parked their vehicles the Boko Haram communicated with those who were bombarding the town without shooting anybody. They were just firing gunshots and using Rocket Propelled Grenades to destroy buildings; they came and joined them and they took off. Some of the vehicles broke down so they set them on fire at that location and the carcasses of three of such vehicles are still there. They moved slowly with these girls because a lot of breakdowns took place. The following day the parent got to know that their daughters were taken away based on information by some of the girls that escaped. The parents started making phone calls to one another to follow the girls since it was a hopeless situation. Some were on motorbikes trying to pursue and catch up with the insurgents.
Some of them even mobilized and went as far as Baale which is between Gwoza and Damboa and forms part of the Sambisa forest, but unfortunately they couldn’t do anything. They were advised not to venture inside the forest because they were ill-equipped to face the insurgents. So their agonies continued. From our records a few girls up to five were able to escape from the camp in Sasmbisa forest. A total of 67 girls were able to escape including those who jumped down from the vehicles, leaving 219 still in captivity. These are the ones that ere yet to be rescued. The good thing is that the committee set up by the government has told the whole world clearly in line with the version I have given you.
What is the level of involvement of your association, the Kibaku Area Development Association in the campaign to rescuethe girls?
We are not military men but we have some people who are retired intelligence officers. We were communicating during and after the abduction giving relevant information to the authorities as to where they may be located. We have also come out on air immediately after the military spokesperson came out with that erroneous information about their rescue; we told the world that the number was not what they said and that there hadn’t been any rescue. If there was we challenged them to produce them.
Thank God some few days later the #bring back our girls movement came out with the coalition which started from Ilorin and that projected the issue to the international arena thereby drawing international attention. On our part we have tried to engage the media and we are very thankful to them for carrying our advocacy message on the abduction.
The Boko Haram released video after the abduction threatening to sell off or marry off the abducted girls if their condition was not met. Do you have any current information regarding their whereabouts?
Since the statement by the Chief of Defence Staff that they know the location of the girls and that they were going to secure their release soon everything has been within the domain of the security. Before then we used to send hunters to try and see if they knew where the girls were and we used to get some feedback.
Some of these hunters, how they do it, we don’t know but they used to give us some tangible information and we used to monitor movement. But since the statement by the CDS we now felt that our daughters’ location has now been known to the military hence it is within their capacity or capability to either negotiate or force their way there and bring them out. We opt for the negotiation option which, to us, is more feasible. So I can’t for sure tell you that now we know where the girls are. The Boko Haram insurgents are made up of people who we believe are strategic thinkers. Even the way they carry out the whole exercise, the way they have been continually changing their strategies, shows that they have some intelligence machinery and strategists who plan for them.
Therefore it is possible that if they have information about what the military might do they would also know how to respond. Therefore it is possible the girls are still around where they were taken to; it is also possible that they have taken them somewhere else. If the Boko Haram could move on with ammunition, including Armored Personnel Carriers, and our security can’t tell us that this is where it is coming from then there is every cause to worry.
Do you nurse any fears as to whether the girls would still be alive?
We would want to believe that they are still alive. The Boko Haram has been abducting women and they use them either as sex slaves or human shields. I would want to believe that they may be using them as human shields. However, you talked about the issue of their video. The statement made by the person purported to be Shekau was that those shown in the video were those converted to Islam.
That means there are those who have refused to renounce their faith and what might have happened to those ones is something else. They may be treating those who have converted to Islam as ‘honourable’ while those who are Christians and refused to change their religion, only God knows what might have happened to them. Whether they are still alive; whether they have been tortured or whether some of them have been abused, we wouldn’t know.
There was a reported attempt to strike a negotiation deal between the government and the sect through a mediator but it appeared to have collapsed. Do you know anything about the deal?
I was aware that somebody came in from Dubai and went and took some photographs with the abducted girls to indicate that he got access to where they were. Since then nothing has happened; the man returned back to where he came from and why the negotiation was terminated I don’t know. That is why we are still crying louder that something is wrong somewhere. Since somebody offered something, that opportunity should have been exploited for the world to know that an attempt had been made and the man failed. Unfortunately we have not been told whether the man had actually failed or succeeded in some ways but the government had reneged on demands.
We should have been communicated and that would have given us hope but nothing has been heard. Omeri’s office is just there talking about things that are just sundry as far as I am concerned. What they should have told the world is that an effort in this direction had been made and this is where we are. For example nobody has called me from Omeri’s office to seek our views or try to reach out to the parents. So we are just waiting and watching.
Were you excited with the news about foreign assistance in the rescue efforts and if you were have your expectations been dashed?
I was elated; I was so happy that they heeded to our cry and came in to assist the Nigerian government. Unfortunately immediately after the announcement by the CDS that they know the location of the girls I started reading it on the pages of papers that this foreign assistance had already started developing cold feet because they felt such intelligence was to be kept secret and shared with the foreign bodies. Maybe they came to discover that our system is not transparent to the extent that they can operate.
What we learnt afterwards was that some of the surveillance aircraft were withdrawn and it could be one of two things. Either they now know the location of the girls and there was need to comb the whole area or they were frustrated out of offering the assistance. As parents we would still want to be on the positive side.
What do you think is the solution?
No solution at the moment rather than negotiation. After negotiating the government should now be proactive in handling Boko Haram to stop further abduction. This is because after the Chibok abduction there were also other abductions in other areas including those women who escaped last week. At least I communicated with some of them. Therefore negotiations should be made not only with the view to rescuing the girls but ending the issues of abduction by the insurgents. Government should look at these things holistically and address them.
Recently the government announced the arrest of some politicians who were allegedly linked with the Boko Haram sect…?
Whether politician or no politician the Boko Haram and the herdsmen to me are two sides of the same coin and they must have sponsors. These people are not well educated to be able to do these things they are doing successfully, so there must be brains behind them. Whether the brains are politicians or not, which we believe they are, why will it take government with all the security apparatus; the SSS, military intelligence and so on, yet it has taken so long to identify people associated with the insurgents. It simply means we are not doing our job.